Discussion on the analogy between heat and electric conductions

作者：Cheng, XueTao^*; Liang, XinGang

来源：International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2019, 131: 709-712.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.11.111

• Analogy
• Heat conduction
• Electric conduction
• Heat-work conversion
• Purely mechanical system

Recently, the analogy between the processes of heating a solid body and charging an electric capacitor was deemed as "heat-work analogy" and argued that it was false and violated the second law of thermodynamics. It was claimed that the two processes were not analogous because the process of heating a solid body was classified as a purely thermal system, while that of charging an electric capacitor was classified as a purely mechanical system. In response, this note discusses the analogy between heat and electric conductions and that between heating a solid body and charging an electric capacitor. It is shown that the analogies have nothing to do with heat-work conversion, and never violate the second law of thermodynamics. The classification of charging an electric capacitor as a purely mechanical system is inappropriate. It is also shown that what we concern in the analogy analysis are the commonalities between the processes, rather than the differences.

• 出版日期2019-3
• 单位清华大学